So it looks like the blessed day is almost upon us. Well not us actually, Scot and Anni. There is a wedding this weekend and it will be joining Mr. Proctor and Ms. Hood. Then there is the week off honey moon and all that rot. As is the ritual there was a convening of friends at some popular watering hole or another to pass on best wishes and warnings. Last night's passage to the mouth of hell bliss was first the Chatterbox then later McNivens for dining and final warm and fuzzies (and warnings). Our wait person at McNivens was Ryan (if that really is her name) and I asked her to point the digital pixel compactor at our assemblage and capture the moment. Judging by the multi-farious faces on smile bloomage she did an excellent job.

All Hail the soon to be Conquered Hero!
(l to r) Rich C. Jeff B. CP(ME) Rachel A. Mike W and C.Scott P.
Later during and the food consuming portion of our dining experiment experience I compacted a few more pixels in the same fashion. The shot of Rachel Aspy and Mike Wilson aptly demonstrates the different opinions of having an image captured. The evening was a success and at around midnight it began a whole new day as most evenings are want to do. Rich and Mike (or was it C.Scott) also sampled the Monty Python's Holy Grale, but I can not attest to the taste I had my customary Robert The Bruce and I was home long before the new day deal, but I here that rabbit was dynamite.
This wasn't a dream, it was real and the shiny black spiders were pleasantly keeping to themselves.

Oh, Picture time meets Nobody said there were going to be Pictures!

Chuck Pace ©2008 
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Well we did it to the best of our limited ability and finances. The big on vacation project is all but finished. I removed the carpet in the hall way on Monday. On wednesday I acid cleaned and etched the concrete floor. then I came up with a simple design for the pattern of the new stained floor, then I came up with another pattern and finally I had a pattern I could stan standing on. Yesterday it was an all day affair masking, and prepping and painting and waiting between each step. Don't get me wrong I did other things this week we were able to get in 8 episodes of Angel, and watch a rental movie during all this waiting to dry and such. So it has been a vacation. I have to be back at work on Tuesday so we still have three plus days ahead. We are using that time to visit Jenni's folks and sibs in Tennessee. Here is the images of the floor project., We will be adding a urethane sealer soon as we can figure how not to stick two cats and one blind dog in it permanently.

Before and after.
Now off to the In-Laws.
Happy Fourth of July!
Chuck Pace ©2008

I could talk about the wonderful party at Kays. They are always wonderful there. I could talk about the home stretch of shopping, but that is a given now. I could talk about missing family but that is too painful to dwell on. I could talk about the blur that is these last few days of December, or the constant wondering 'what day of the week is this' that happens when there is no sun in the morning and no sun in the evening, but that has been beat to death like...
The whole point of the holidays is to be with the ones you love, most of them are in Northern Florida, Southern Florida, Tennessee, and in our hearts. We will be with them all and we will be alone together at the same time. I could say sappy crap like that. I could I could, I could...
I could start the car an warm it up, I could take out the trash and I could go to work.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD REST.
Chuck Pace©2007
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Cayennes, Anaheims, Jalapénos, Cherry Tomatoes and one Habenéro.Chuck Pace ©2007

It felt good to sleep in a bit. I got up at 9:30. Was outside gathering peppers and tomatoes an hour later. I've been straightening and washing cloths and most of all taking it easy in the heat. By now my parents should be back in Florida, they took a little vacation from retirement for a couple of weeks and visited with Mom's baby brother Jimmie and his family in West Virginia for a week, then headed up to Indiana and my brother Dennis' for another week. Saturday was the mildest day in a very long time and it couldn't have come at better time (between Friday and Sunday?). I had Saturday off they spent the day here. We all spent most of the time outside in the garden, I grilled and entertained and caught up a bit with the folks. I heard stories and such of Uncle Jim's kids, there are so many of them I don't even think I could name them all, two boy and six or seven girls, that I haven't seen since probably 1973 or 74. Mom was showing me pictures and saying this is so and so, and this is Calvin and this is Missy and Neil and Tammy's kids and I'm like wait. Which one is Neil? Tammy has Kids? Who is Calvin. So I got a very remedial acquaintance with my Uncle's family in the two dimension 4x6 sense. Calvin is Aunt Juanita's brother for all of you out there keeping score.
As I sit here doing this input thing the sky is alive with sound of jets practicing for the Air show this weekend, but every time I go outside to see if I can get a photo its a no show.

At the top under the header photo is a shot of my dad Phil Pace enjoying the climate in the garden. Directly above one of my gardening assistants checks the quality of the Basil I'm growing for cooking and especially Tomato Pies. Yum.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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50 years is a milestone in any endeavor. Especially when serving the public and making the community a better place to be, not as a volunteer or an elected person or a even man of cloth, but as a retail outlet. Most businesses that maintain for half a century are either small mom and pop shops, or become parts of larger corporations and lose their identity. Yesterday Roberts Distributors stood on the summit, and looked out and back on 50 years of retail, growth, and investment in itself, its employees and a community. I've been there since just after the 31st anniversary, saw the store go from a catalog showroom entity (like Service Merchandise) to Nationally recognized and respected camera store with connections to nearly all the 'big' players, shooters and imaging professionals out there. From a mom and pop where you could get your film, toaster, luggage and a nice wedding band, to a company where you could get the latest amateur, hobbyist or professional camera gear at competitive prices from a real person with more than just a passing knowledge of the operation and function of the product. Happy Birthday to Roberts. Many more happy anniversaries to come (I won't say returns, as that is a retail no-no).
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Forty One. That is the magic number. It looks great next to $389.78. It means about another 170.00. I don't have it. I can get it but it has to come from another part of a budget so full of holes that there will be suffering and added misery. I can't get it soon. But I need to.
Forty One is the number of miles I drove the Bimmer after the radiator and strut replacements before another problem reared its ugly head. I feel like Jason of the Argonauts fighting a four headed hydra, struggle to knock out one head and there are still 3 to fight and the sword is getting so heavy. Someone call Ray Harryhousen and tell him to give me a break. The new problem is in the same corner the brake disc is now rubbing in one spot as though severely warped. To the point that it feels like the whole corner is going to seize up and break. If I do the work myself it is about 119.00 for the rotor. and another 40.00 for new pads, with tax that about 170. Then I'll need to bleed (I am bleeding, I'm hemorrhaging actually, but it's green not red. Add 170 to the 389.00 I've already spent to get the struts and cooling and that is an expensive forty-one miles, well I had to drive another 12 miles with the thing seizing grabbing and shuddering on the right side (this applies equally to Jenni in the passenger seat and the disc brake assembly actually) after the brake started its terrorizing me. About $10.57 per mile (not counting fuel) since I picked up the car from BFM.
I need an economy car, a leather vest and a sword, and a half dozen argonauts, two eclairs and for glazed please. Well, Jenni is ready to give me a ride in in the truck. Work calls duty calls. But Misery won't hang up for me to answer the other calls. Leave a message I'll get back to you.
There may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release
oh, my head is spinning like the world
and it's filled with beasts I've seen,
let me put my bag down
and I'll tell you it all right from the start.
like the scarlet woman who would pick on the boys
she thought were green, and the two faced man
who made a hobby of breaking his wife's heart.
seems the more I travel, from the foam to gravel,
as the nets unravel, all exotic fish
I find like jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.

I was in a land where men force women to hide
their facial features,
and here in the west it's just the same
but they're using make-up veils.
I've seen acts of every shade of terrible crime
from man-like creatures, and I've had the breath
of liars blowing me off course in my sails.
seems the more I travel,
from the foam to gravel, as the nets unravel,
all exotic fish
I find like jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.
I have watched the manimals go buy---buying shoes,
buying sweets, buying knives.
I have watched the manimals and cried
buying time, buying ends to other peoples lives.

jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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How many times did I hit the snooze. Another night without many z's in the sleep bank. I tossed and turned, beat up a pillow, and tormented in a horizontal torture chamber. Finally after two hours I packed it in and went to the couch. The tocks reigned havoc on the ticks and the battle ensued, Somewhere after 2:30, with Charlie laying on my feet I entered the sleep chamber of horrors only to start whacking the snooze button on the alarming cellular mere seconds later, or maybe it was a scant handful of hours, or maybe it never happened. 'Twasn't enough, M'lord, I barely crashed before the somnambulance driver had me on my feet again. I can't say I dreamed, there was no time, more like I schemed, conspired with the alarm for a scant few more seconds, since my first course was so insubstantial. I got my just deserts. But just deserts are not enough to sustain. Is this making any sense? I don't know let me sleep on it. I'm still struggling to crawl to the surface of reality although I'm sitting here typing, most of the moment is draining through a colander of coherence, and it feels like I'm (or my mind is) as much asleep as alive right now. Soon I expect the switch to be thrown, and intelligible thought to follow. In any case I'll need a new switch, I should have never thrown that one, I could have flipped it, but I had no interest in seeing what it looked like from a different perspective, I didn't want to see it at all.
More time, snooze. Snooze time. Damn, that was not ten minutes I barely sat the accursed instrument of my resurrection back on the table. SNOOZE, it must be broken. When I was a youth and I had transgressed a boundary or rule my mother would sometimes begin my punishment with this phrase, "Get a knife out of the kitchen drawer and go cut me a switch, to whip you with." The horror of being the tool of deliverance for your own punishment is often more punishment than the lashes received, this was the case again as I stumbled to the door frame and actuated the switch from light to dark, allowing spark to tungsten filament unabated and illuminating a dwelling outside a still dark and clouded mental landscape, still praying for more time. Give me... , aww I'm awake now time to get ready for a foray into to the world of commerce, perhaps I'll buy a little time and tick it in my sleep bank. I have to go apologize to a pillow. I'll see you in the sleep hazed dream that is your reality, mine's busted.
Do I hear Louis Armstrong playing "Dream A Little Dream of Me" ?
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME
(W. Schwant / F. Andre / G. Kahn)
Yes, stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"
Birds singin' in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me, yes

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longin' to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this, yes

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

------ instrumental break ------

Yes, stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this, yes

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
Yes, dream a little dream of me

Chuck Pace © 2007
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Zombies arise! I'm too old for this... I don't know how many times Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) says that in the first Lethal Weapon movie, but I think I understand why he says it. I'm still trying to recover from a week old multi-race weekend, and I don't really know when I'm going to get enough sleep to get that done. There is always something keeping me from the oh so needed rest cycle, The Chatterbox, bowling, insomnia, work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, insomnia, Crambone, insomnia. I've gone to bed by 10:00 the last three nights and still not woken refreshed. I may be like an old nicad battery, the ones that just lose their ability to maintain power, or never recharge fully after so many uses. I'm definitely on the downward side of the bell curve of middle age, I think I'll be o.k. for a while but soon it starts to get really steep. Steep,sleep deep sleep sheep sheep sheep... zzzzz.
The funny thing here is I was talking too Rich at work yesterday and he is struggling as much a I am, and he's ten years younger than I. Jack Green, Bill Brooks and I were talking about this too on Wednesday when I stopped in for a couple at the box, at 88 Jack still gets it done, while Brooks and I were talking about not feeling our age, or accepting that we are our age. Well, we may never grow up, but getting up from bed may become a little more difficult. I fell asleep in 'the chair' watching a 'taped' episode of rescue me on Wednesday night. That is rare for me. Maybe a sign of things to come.
Tonight at Clancey's there is another Crambone show. These are shows. I don't say Crambone is playing, these are shows. The lead singer Jeff is just a little crazy, and you never know what he's going to do next. I tell stories of the things he's done at the three shows I've attended, and I here even more outrageous tales from the ones I've missed. Mercifully I have saturday off and may get to sleep until noon. I hope I get to sleep until at least 10. o.k. 8. Well what ever sleep I get will be welcomed, and will end too soon. I'm done here I've got to take some vitamins.
Sorry there are no pictures, I got too late to work on that. I don't know maybe I'm still a little groggy. What was the post about today?
I don't remember.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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"For my own part I have never had a thought which I could not set down in words with even more distinctness than that which I conceived it." Edgar Alan Poe.
So my missus tells me that she misses the daily post, the rambling writings, and the boarding pass to my flights of passing fancy. I admit that it is cathartic at times to sit and roll with the moment at keyboard and LCD, but there are so many times when I have nothing really to say that it seems a great waste of effort. The work of wordsmithing, if not physically exhausting is still very difficult and requires diligence and mental fatigue at times. I identify with the quote from Poe above from his "A Dream Within a Dream" and truly feel I can almost achieve a level of eloquence, or "distinctness" at the keyboards far better than my clumsy tongue can ever manufacture. I am an aside (adding my thoughts in the stream of...) kind of guy when I type just as I am an aside kind of guy when I talk, but rarely do I stumble over the words that are manufactured from the digits instead of the palate. Even having said this, if I am to get back into the rhythm of daily puking of thoughts I feel I should have some content worthy. More than just remunerating bowling scores or attendees at the local watering hole. I'm sure that I will still do plenty of that, too much for many tastes I'm sure, but I wish for a clarity of purpose or at least a direction to my missives. The other day I sat for two hours and wrote a travel piece with pictures and details that was lost in a laptop lock-up that could only be rectified with a reboot. The damn thing locked up as I was trying to save it. How frustrating. I have yet to recreate that post, since the spontaneity of creation is lost in redeux, and the originality forced. I rarely have a direction when I sit to task at computer and blog. It is as new to me as it is to dear reader when I have finished, even if it is a recap of a horrible or fabulous even at kegeling. Yet I feel I must recapture that posts spirit if not its majesty (such as it were). So I will tell that tale again soon. I have the pictures reloaded, and saved, and with their baptism I shall see them rise again (from keystroke and screen) my brothers and sisters.
The photo above is from Lebanon, and the trip I mentioned above. It is symbolic of my need to get back to the task. To be current and Modern in my posings. Many of you have asked for it, now you are going to get it.

Chuck Pace © 2007
As "Modern" as Richard Morris' 1967 musical comedy, "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
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Work , work. work, work, work. Hello boys(and girls) did you miss me? I was up at 9 yesterday, out the door for errands by 9:15, and back from all my running (o.k. driving) by 10:20, from then on it was yard projects (one of which meant tearing up the world HQ), mowing, cleaning and such, planting and watering and basic yardening until about 4:15 when, I had to go get something to eat. I was dizzy and trembling, and suffering from heat prostration I'm sure. The wind was something fierce yesterday too, it ripped my trumpet vines off the side of the house, and broke one of the lesser limbs of my tulip tree. Gads.
Shifting gears: On wednesday Jenni and I stopped at Wendy's for lunch and took the fast food to Garfield Park, where we were harassed by squirrels. Three separate ones watched us eat, one bold one came and sat on the bench a couple of feet from Jenni,. We tried to give him a piece of lettuce from a sandwich, and he was having none of it, then Jenni tried a fry, and that fit the bill nicely. Pretty soon he was coming up and taking fries right out of our hands, while we warned the bushy tailed rodent that these were empty hollow calories, he none the less insisted on begging several more during our visit. I was lucky to have my camera and got a few good shots of our lunch company.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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The Receiving Line? Matt hopes they enjoy the Chafing Dish. Chuck Pace © 2007
The all vendor spring demo is over, the Canon specific demo is in the offing. This weekend was the absolutely worst weather for a demo, the skies were azure and cloudless, the temperatures were in the 70's and the camera geeks and buyers were smitten with springs blush. Sure there were a few takers, but many more avoided the downtown proper because of the umptenth annual firefighters convention downtown and throughout our fair micro-metropolis. I worked saturday and was busy with as much infrastructure and camera sensor cleanings as I was with sales. There is not as much room up front for an all out rep assault as there was in the old configuration, but those who could horn in got theirs.
Sunday was a stunner. What a dish Mother Nature gave us. Jenni and I worked in the yard for over an hour then I grabbed a book (Next, by Michael Crichton) and spent a little more time with the lovely weather before it was time to shower and then hit the bowling alley for the "Nothing Better To Do" Finale. Team "Mel 'N' Them went in two behind the 6th place team and two in front of the 8th team firmly in 7th we won 4 points and lost four points and most likely stayed 7th. Jenni subbed for Wil/Mel and David , Rich and I rounded out the evenings adventure.

This morning I grabbed a few shots of the Apple Blossoms in bloom in the back yard, and of course had the song "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White"by The Harmonicats playing in my head the entire time, it was and is lovely like the day before and behind us. Enjoy.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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The new camera dept. with some of its fixtures, Chuck Pace © 2007
The store continues to change and adapt to the new surfaces, spaces and arrangement. The employees continue to adapt to the same thing, while many of the regular customer will walk right by the new camera location on their way back to the older ingrained area like Pavlovian Photographers. I even had one customer stop at one of my rare sojourns in the camera area and say to me, "Hey aren't you in the wrong area, aren't you supposed to be the cameras in the back?" I won't say who that was but he has the same last name as at least one of the Three Stooges. I thought, "There is that keen observational eye that most good photographers have", but said, "I am in cameras, the SLR's are right here behind me, see?" I say a rare sojourn because I've spent more time in the last two weeks moving, lifting, sliding, tilting, unstacking and stacking, stacking and unstacking, arranging and changing than I have in or around cameras, camera sales or camera customers, that's the way it has been for several of us, and of course sales have suffered, and commissions are omissions for the few who are commission pay based. I thought this would happen, and it looks like it will continue in some for or another even after the rearrangement is final.
Tomorrow after work its home to pack, then bowling. After that we attempt a few hours of sleep then dash down and over to Bristol Tennessee for Nasca r Racing in the fishbowl. Travis and Mike W. are joining Rich and I at the track, and our personal driver John Qualkenbush is driving us there in his motor home. I expect the place to look a little different when we return, but not as much as if we had stayed, since Rich has applied most of the muscle and construction savvy. Not to mention relocating all the hardware. I think most of the changes when we return on Tuesday will be of a location of inventory and equipment nature, with 80% of the grunt work being done, but 20 % of the staff already. The photos above are of Dan the Floor man and Rich's old office corner continuing to evolve. The inevitable change even comes to Roberts, it just had to take the scenic route.

The refurbished jewelry area, I wonder what Bob is looking at? Chuck Pace © 2007
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Not Many Rushers for the Hour, Pre-Construction area. Chuck Pace © 2007
Just a little over a week into Super 70, I am excited to see the changes and improvements, I normally would take I-70 from the far east side to downtown and back after work about 80% of the time. Right now I've been on I-70 twice since returning from vacation, both times in the waning daylight hours after rush hour traffic would be long gone. The traffic has slowed a lot, and the work seems to be going pretty quick, but, we shall see.

Floored between Friday and Monday. Chuck Pace © 2007
As momentous as the Super 70 project is, the more amazing one is right down-town at Roberts. The laminate flooring has started to go down in the front, and the effect is immediate, the place looks warmer and more modern. Why shouldn't, I think that Bob and Rose took the old carpet from an Egyptian temple when Pharoah released the hebrews and set them to wander into the desert with Moses. I have started documenting this change too, and plan to present the store with a collection of shots when the process reaches fruition.

New Camera Central. Chuck Pace © 2007
I of course will keep you posted, so to speak.
Next we make bricks without straw, where's you're God now Moses?
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Yesterday, almost as nice at Florida weather yesterday, Swingin'! Chuck Pace © 2007
Yesterday was a beautiful day, I grilled out and made a whole new experimental marinade for pork chops, yum. I will have to remember what and how much of what I put in that marinade. It was awsome. Then there was the Nascar race from Las Vegas. ? I don't know what happened. I led the fantasy league until there were only 19 laps left. That's when Jeff Burton's battery stopped charging and he started falling back. He was looking for a caution to change put the battery, unfortunately for me he got one four laps later. When poll sitter Kasey Kahne lost control and backed hard into the wall and finished his day, and mine. Congratulations to Ed Sipes for his fantasy racing win. So I really do know what happened, but I was looking forward to a another big win.
Today it's back to work, where they started putting down the laminate flooring on Saturday evening, I can't wait to see how much they got done.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Al Stewart Anyone? Nope. Renovation at Roberts. I started in 1988. The carpet on the floors had started a few years earlier. The show cases were old and wooden, the primary mode of merchandise display was gondolas in the aisles. We were a catalog showroom. Well lots of things have changed, and lots of things have stayed the same. By this time next week just about everything will be different. The changes when they do happen are usually dramatic. Like the building of the photo-lab, or the addition of the the warehouse an d loading dock. But the most sweeping (and mopping) changes are just about to happen. The carpet, which is so old and faded, is about to be replaced by laminate wood flooring. Bruce recently mad the comment that removing the carpet could cause a collapse in the building, he figures after 20+ years the carpet has become a structural member, a load bearing element. On the album Pyramid, The Alan Parsons Group aptly says, "What goes up must come down, what must rise must fall." Such is the case with the first managers office, come e-bay office come scrap pile yesterday. "Ch-ch-ch changes turn and faced the strain... " David Bowie. "Strange days indeed, most peculiar momma..." John Lennon.
The scary thing is how fast almost twenty years working at Roberts can be erased both physically and figuratively. The knocking down of walls and moving of cases makes tomorrow a new day with a new outlook, and something different. Of course in 6 months it will seem like it's always been the way it is going to be in a few weeks. Such is the nature of repetitive behavior and unchanging patterns.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Scott, Anni and Lex at the store on Tuesday last, Chuck Pace © 2007
So after what seemed like an eternity (9 days) I am partially able to post again. Partially; because there have been some major changes, for one the photo album is gone. For another I've built an archive 05-06 link to make the upload quicker, and less prone to instability. I will revise the photo album soon, with new and old photos alike, and update the stuff as I can. I already had one crash today after my first success in over a week. How was even the marginal victory achieved? I moved everything back to the mobile command center, since tomorrow after work Jenni, Meredith and I will be going mobile. First to Tennessee for a very brief stop and recoup before the long drive to Old Town Florida. I am up too late right now, and there is no way I can catch anybody up in one post anyway, suffice it to say, I've bowled, repaired cars, shoveled an olympic sized pools worth of snow and ice, and enjoyed having my daughter here for almost 5 weeks. David has flown up from Florida for Valentines day and returned, the car has had her hiccups cured, and the Nascar season has returned. There has been one race, and one winner so far, in the race it was Kevin Harvick, in the fantasy league it was me.
There has been two more Pacers in trouble, Anna Nicole has bought the big Air-Head Ranch in the sky, Lost has been found and Smallville continues to be awesome.
Anni Hood has become Mother hood after birthing a very handsome micro Scott (yes even smaller than the original), and Alexander 'Lex' Thomas Scott Proctor has made a visit to the Store and C. Scott has returned to work after a little more than a week off. Life goes on and I go south to retrieve some of my sanity. Wish me luck, I've been without it for quite a long time.
So I have to ask, has the heart grown fonder?
Chuck Pace © 2007
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